Has anyone been president of a PTO/PTA or Home & School?

[B3LM]

I can't believe how much time I spent on school stuff last week. I'm now the president of our Home & School organization and I sure hope it slows down soon! It was easily a full time job last week. (And, I'm trying to look for a part-time job!)

Any helpful advice?
Beth

 

[Claudia1]

Delegate! Unfortunately, many such organizations are top-heavy with volunteers who are leaders. Not bad unless you want to make them all row together in the canoe!

Seriously, find a way to spread out the responsibilities. Some parents are at home with little ones and can't come to the school to help. Ask them to call volunteers & schedule help. Some people are always at school and always willing. Seek out their talents and beg (!).

I have been an officer for several years in 2 schools. Yes, it is a lot of work but the rewards are intangible.

 

[tiggerlover]

No advice here, I have not been involved in PTA before a couple of weeks ago. (DS is only 6). But I am now the new Vice President of our PTA. It looks like we will have a busy year ahead of us. School starts this week and our President is going away for a month, so looks like I will have to step up to the plate in her absence.

Good luck with your position!!

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font color=navy>I was PTO president for 4 years, after being secretary for 3....

My advice would be
* Be prepared ahead of time
* Set an agenda for each meeting and make sure that the group adheres to it - you can have free time for afterwards
* Keep track of action items - if you wish to remind them, email them, if possible, before your next meeting
* Delegate
* "Encourage" others to volunteer - if they don't raise their hands, call on them
* Look at people straight in the eye, smile, and have a firm handshake
* Have incentives to have parents want to come to the general meetings (our board meets once a month & we have 2 general meetings a semester) ... I got one from the DIS - offer free dress to kids whose parents come - it works great!!
* You might want to establish groundrules for your board meetings -- one of the things that really irritated me was when a couple of board members would talk on the cell phone during the meeting - and it was for things that could have waited - very non-emergency reasons

My daughter is in 8th at an 8 year school (Catholic), and my son just started high school ... we've already had a mom's meeting for the high school, and our first PTO board meeting @ the 8-yr school is tomorrow ... I plan on taking it easy at the high school level till I get both kids there, and this year at my dd's school, I'm just a Director at Large, so it'll be easy

Good luck - it's very rewarding

 

[B3LM]

Wow, thanks for the great advice. I do have one question. Could you elaborate a little more on...

offer free dress to kids whose parents come - it works great!!

I'm not sure what you mean.

tiggerlover, good luck with your new position. Hopefully your month as "acting president" will go smoothly. I'll be in WDW for 9 days in November and unfortunately our monthly meeting is that particular week. My VP will be running that meeting.

Beth

 

[Keli]

Hey Beth, I've been wondering how that was going for you. Sounds like it's gonna be a big job but I know you are going to do well.

 

[disykat]

I'm PTA President right now. I'm assuming the beginning of the year will be the hardest, since my volunteer pool is small. I plan on expanding it! School starts after Labor Day for us.

I just got back from making the PTA bulletin board with another volunteer. I'll pop in a few more times this week to take care of various things. The hardest part for me right now is that some of our old volunteers are tired and IMO will give a bad impression if they help with some of the start of the year things (mainly membership booths and refreshments at Get Acquainted Picnic, Kindergarten Orientation, 1st Day, Open-House etc.)so I'm trying to put newer, more enthusiastic volunteers at those functions, as well as being at all of them myself. That means I'm doing lots of the actual work myself as I show people the ropes! Today at least one more person learned where all the storage/supply rooms etc. are!

The past several years have been a very small group of people doing things and I hope to change that by welcoming new volunteers and being friendly etc. I'm hoping PTA will actually be fun this year.

I also work part-time, but since I only substitute teach at the same school it's pretty flexible. I don't even plan on being available to sub until a few weeks into school when things have settled down!

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font face="Comic Sans MS"><font color=navy>Free Dress....

The kids wear uniforms at the school. We get a weekly bulletin from the principal. Before our general meeting, she puts in there that any student whose parents attend the general meeting can wear free dress on a set day. The teachers also let the students know in class. (Since the kids get out @ 12:30 every Friday, free dress usually lands on a Friday)

It's amazing what parents will do to please their children. Our attendance to the general PTO meetings increased significantly. I also learned through experience that we don't hand out the free dress stickers until the end of the meeting.

I created the stickers on my computer & they said something like:

<center>FREE DRESS PASS
My parent went to the PTO Meeting</center>

You can also make passes instead of stickers for the students.

 

[Kallison]

It's a thankless job, don't take any criticism personally. Certain parents will find something to continually complain about. At our school we have two parents share the President and VP position, that seems to work well. Except they all have wanted out for the past year and can't find anyone to replace them. I don't think it should be their job to find their replacement, but they feel they can't quit the job otherwise. Either that or when their kids graduate I guess! I'm feeling burnt out from volunteering, I did a lot more when the kids were small.

 

[B3LM]

Hi Kallison, I really hope I don't get burnt out. The nice thing is that we have 1 year terms, with a maximum of serving two terms in the same position. President and Treasurer seem to be the hardest positions to fill. We have a nominating committee who helps find new people to fill vacant positions so that helps a bit.

As much as I enjoy it, I know that the territory comes with listening to all of the complaints, too. Depending on who is doing the complaining - if it's a person who does a lot of volunteering also, I'll certainly listen to what they have to say and consider it. To those who complain, and constantly complain, but do nothing to help, I'll listen and offer a volunteer job to them to facilitate changes. It usually shuts them up! How does that old saying go, "Put up or shut up." (Boy, that sounds so harsh!)

Beth

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font color=navy>I've used that tactic with complaining parents....

My usual MO is to show appreciation that they show concern, and tell them that they can use that enthusiasm to head up a committee to find possible solutions, and the executive board and committee could meet to discuss their recommendations. More often than not they'll back down and come up with all the excuses why they can't.... and I tell them that that is part of our problem, finding parents who have time - usually, I don't hear anymore from that person - at least in a negative sense.

One time we had a group of parents who had spent some good time getting worked up over the fact that the school doesn't have a cafeteria. Right then I got the two most vocal parents to be committee leaders, and had our secretary take the names down of all of the parents who were upset. It was a volatile meeting, but we turned it around. In the end, out of the 14 or so parents who had angrily raised their hands, only 3 followed through, and they found out that unless the parents were willing to put a lot of money into redoing the kitchen and increase tuition to pay for cafeteria workers AND get parents to help volunteer, it wasn't a viable solution... and one of the fathers who had been vocal ended up joining our board.

 

[B3LM]

MaryJo, great example! I'm going to have to remember that one because we're in the process of remodeling our parish hall and everyone keeps asking me if we'll have a cafeteria to provide lunch for the kids every day. It will have a brand new kitchen, but there are no plans to provide a "cafeteria" for the students. The money to support it would have to come from somewhere. Frankly, we already pay enough!

Thanks for the great advice!
Beth

 

[sandramaac]

I am in the 2nd year of my two year term as president of our PTO. I was VP for two years and xmas bazaar chair for 4 years. My advice for you

1. Encourage your members to realize that they work for ALL the students, just not their own children. My motto is not "my child but rather our children".

2. Delegate

3. Learn the art of diplomacy and brush up on your public speaking skills

 

[Kallison]

The biggest complainers will be the ones who never volunteer. I do know that if someone complains at a meeting or says "We should do this...." our Pres. is so good at smoothly saying - OK will YOU head up the comittee!